He Barriers Affecting Learning Amongst the Adults - Research Paper Example

PSYCHOMETRIC Module Module ID: SECTION I Ethical Considerations: The theorists and scholars always lay stress upon the strict observing of ethical considerations while conducting the research and interpreting the findings subsequently. The British Psychological Society (2009) has also determined the ethical issues involved in the social research processes; according to which the code is based upon four ethical principles including respect, competence, responsibility and integrity (BPS, 2009:10). While discussing the first principle of respect, it becomes evident that it is the moral and professional obligation of the researcher to deal with all respondents, involved in the study, on the concrete foundations of equality, partiality and justice; where there should not be any biased or prejudiced behaviour towards or against any individual, group, community or society on the basis of clan, caste, creed, class, ethnicity, race, region, religion, gender, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status (Bailey, 1994:459). In other terms, the units of analysis must be respondents or participants in the eyes of researcher; and their appearance, preferences and background should not influence or affect the researcher’s mind, as observing some biased behaviour on the part of researcher would certainly have impact on the research findings (Bachrach, 2008:110-1). Similarly, another noteworthy aspect related to respect of the respondents includes treating the children and elderly with special consideration and care. It is predominantly the case while conducting research on the children or elderly belonging to vulnerable groups or suffering from some mental illness or other ailment, under which they experience learning and cognitive development problems (Mollet, 2008:5). While elaborating the second ethical issue of competence, BPS (2009:15-6) ascertains that the researcher should have appropriate knowledge, skill and competency necessary for embarking upon the research process. The competency is not restricted to one specific field only; rather, the professional intends to conduct the study is required to have command over the discipline and topic on which the data is going to be gathered, along with complete information of the population or universe selected for the research process (Bachrach, 2008:123). Having information about the universe would turn out to be supportive in respect of escaping any unpleasant situation during the course of research. For instance, if researcher is conducting study on Jews and Muslims, he should have knowledge regarding the sentiments of these communities about Hitler and George Bush respectively, due to the very fact that both Hitler and Bush had inflicted throbbing cruelties on the Jews and Muslims respectively (Zaidi, 2013). In the same way, while collecting the data from gays, the researcher should not cite the Bible condemning same-sex relationships (Leviticus, 19). Competency also reiterates upon having in-depth research and investigation as well as strong inter-personal skills essential for extracting information from the respondents (Bailey, 1994: 468). If the researcher is hesitant and does not have appropriate confidence level to extract information from the respondents, his research could not be stated to be representing the population selected for the study. On the contrary, the researcher should be bold enough to ask all types of questions from the universe essential for the fulfilment of the requirements. For instance, while conducting research on the clergy, the researcher must be well-informed and well-prepared regarding the religious obligations of the church ministers. In the same way, if the researcher is given the topic of exhibitionism, mastofact or some other relevant to sexual fantasies of priorities, his confidence and information should reflect his competency and command over the subjects. Responsibility has been declared to be another imperative phenomenon with regards to professional ethics. Responsibility lays stress upon the reality that the researcher should also acknowledge and appreciate the information and knowledge maintained by the respondents, and there should not be created any situation of conflict or contradiction altogether. On the other hand, the researcher should tolerate even the unpleasant remarks from the respondents for the sake of gathering complete data required for the study (BPS, 2009:18-9). Furthermore, the researcher must be responsible enough to observe the policy of strict confidentiality during the course of research procedure, and must not disclose the personals details of the respondents at any cost. Hence, the likes, dislikes, sexual orientation and opinion of the respondents must remain secret even after the research is over (Baily, 1994:465). Moreover, the researcher is under ethical obligation to seek prior permission from the respondent before conducting the audio, video or some other recording of the conversation held during the research (BPS, 2009:19). Application of appropriate language while entering into interaction with the respondents is also a sign of respect towards them, so it should be witnessed strictly by the researcher (Doby, 1981:166). Lastly, BPS views integrity to be essential for the person conducting the study; a psychologist values honesty, accuracy, clarity, and fairness to be mandatory for collecting the data (2009:21). The researcher should explicitly explain the research topic and motif behind carrying it out as well to the respondents. The data must be collected from the real respondents, instead of preparing fake results. The study must be carried out on the person that fulfils all requirements of criteria, instead of just taking the available persons as units of analysis. The research outcomes should be arrayed and organised in an appropriate manner, so that they could be interpreted and analysed accurately. By making a critical examination of the ethical considerations in the light of present study, it becomes crystal clear that BPS encompasses all areas of study in a proficient way, as no aspect related to ethical issues seems to be left untouched by the writers. Furthermore, the research has strictly followed the entire four principles ethically essential for conducting the study. The study has not focused on individual answers, nor has it attempted to name the respondents involved in the study. The study did not let any aspect unclear or ambiguous one; rather, everything looks clearer and information appears to be to the point. It mirrors the command of the writers over the discipline of psychology, psychometrics and research methodology, and their being visionary and proficient in these afore-mentioned fields. While discussing the secondary data and its examination as well as interpretation, it becomes evident that since secondary data is based upon the research that has been conducted by the person(s) other than the interpreter, extra heed is to be made for making analysis of the findings. For this purpose, the interpreter has to minutely examine whether the data gathered maintains systematic sequence and similarity throughout with regards to the methodology and techniques applied while data collection (UOC, 2014:2). In addition, the persons involved into the interpretation of secondary data must also strictly observe all the ethical principles and confidentiality associated with the interpretation of primary data; moreover, the confidential findings should remain secret, and would not be included to be the part of research (Koziol & Arthur, 2011:3). Similarly, competency of the researcher in research topic and methodology is also a must for secondary data interpretation as well. SECTION II: In psychological researches, measuring some findings, predominantly the emotions, sentiments, intensity of liking, severity of displeasure and others is impossible. Similarly, combining different factors and exploring relationship among them by reducing the data is also sought by the researchers and analysts. As a result, the theorists have introduced some methods that appear to be extremely supportive ones with regards to measuring such findings after combining various factors; the factor-analysis technique also serves to be one of the most significant methods applied for measuring the research outcomes (Petrides et al, 2004:150). First introduced by Thurstone in 1931, factor analysis is applied as a data reduction or structure detection method (Stat soft). The present study has attempted to explore the barriers affecting learning amongst the adults from this special learning programme adopted for the adults. Both male and female respondents had been selected for conducting the study. The barriers had been mentioned into three categories including “not a barrier, a small barrier, and a big barrier”, which were encoded to be 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The Variance Explained Criteria has been adopted for data analysis in this study in order to examine the 41 questions about the barriers affecting learning of the adult learners. One of the most significant advantages involved in this factor analysis method includes the presenting of a theoretical structure that is consistent with the data (Fichman, 1999:3). In addition, this type of analysis is helpful in determining the relationship between various factors, along with determining the hypothesis and accepting or rejecting it by demonstration of relationship between the variables. Besides, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of Extraction method has also been employed for the exploration of association between age component on the one side, and the influential barriers on the way to learning on the other. Since patterns in data can be hard to find in data of high dimension, where the luxury of graphical representation is not available, PCA is a powerful tool for analysing data (Smith, 2002:12). Here N= 764, where twelve (12) are missing, while mean age is 29.49. The age 23 years has the highest frequency with mode 72, followed by 25 and 26 years, having mode 65 and 59 respectively. Descriptive Statistics Barriers N Min Max Mean Std. Deviation Residential circumstances 762 1 6 3.54 1.788 Time since previous study 760 1 6 1.89 1.212 Location during last programme 768 1 2 1.29 .454 Previous programme 756 1 5 2.45 1.183 Age/circumstances set apart 775 1 3 1.38 .607 Employment 769 1 7 2.80 1.408 Valid N (list wise) 738 The above table demonstrates that six important barriers have been included to be examined through descriptive statistics. One of the most significant advantages associated with descriptive statistics includes its presenting the quantitative data in a precise but powerful manner in graphic and tabular forms (Chaudhry, 2003:4). In addition, descriptive statistics also presents the data by summarising its various aspects individually or collectively. Hence, through descriptive statistics, one can learn all the details of research findings by going through the table or graph depicting the outcomes of the research. The same is equally applied to the present study, where in the light of the above findings, it becomes evident that residential circumstances (mean=3.54, sd= 1.788) and employment (mean=2.80; sd=1.408) appear to be the most essential barriers according to the respondents on the way to their learning as adult learners. Factor Analysis Communalities Initial Extraction Age 1.000 .549 Residential circumstances 1.000 .532 Employment 1.000 .340 Lacking confidence in ability 1.000 .033 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. The above data demonstrates the relationship between age component and three most significant barriers in learning procedure. The above-mentioned barriers serve to be the independent variables, while learning process is the dependent variable. The following hypothesis could be developed in the light of the barriers selected for conducting the study. Residential circumstances, employment-related issues and lack of confidence tend to be the most influential barriers on the way to the individuals’ obtaining adult education through the learning process. The extraction figures reveal strong association between the mean age of the respondents on the one side, and its association with residential circumstances as the strongest barrier on the other. Moreover, mean age and employment also exhibit close relationship between them, though lack of confidence does not have any noticeable association with mean age. It simply means that an imperative proportion of the respondents belonging to senior age groups also undergo the problem of lacking confidence while seeking adult education. The Principal Component Analysis successfully presents the detailed comparison of the barriers affecting learning in a precise manner, by displaying their relationship with the dependent variable on the one side, and relationship among the independent variables on the other. SECTION III Internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) for the factors: Cronbach’s alpha serves a one of the most commonly applied measure of internal consistency and reliability, which turns out to be imperatively beneficial while making analysis of multiple questions. It is predominantly the case with the analysis of the nature of answer at the scale. For instance, in this study, the independent variables have been mentioned to be not a barrier, a small barrier, and a big barrier at the measurement scale, while impact of these barriers on learning procedure of the adults is dependent variable. Extraction and Principal Component Analysis have been applied for measuring the co-relation among the age of the respondents and barriers in learning. As already mentioned, residential circumstances, time since previous study, location during last programme, previous programme and employment were particularly focused due to their being the most frequently declared barriers with highest modes. The same has also been evaluated by reliability statistics through Cronbachs Alpha (in SPSS), which produced the following outcomes, where sex was taken as the main factor for examining its association with two most influential barriers including residential circumstances and previous programme: Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha N of Items -.312 3 a. The value is negative due to a negative average covariance among items. This violates reliability model assumptions. You may want to check item codings with regards to sex of the respondents and its relationship with the two above-stated barriers. However, reliability produced the following results: Case Processing Summary N % Cases Valid 747 96.3 Excluded 29 3.7 Total 776 100.0 a. Listwise deletion based on all variables in the procedure. The percentile 96.3 with regards to sex and two above-mentioned variables (barriers) prove that the respondents belonging to both the sex viewed these factors to be the most significant barriers on the way to learning. Similarly, nationality of the respondents has also been taken as the factor for the factor analysis, where location during last programme and employment issues have been taken for making a comparative analysis of these barriers with nationality, which produce the following outcomes: Case Processing Summary N % Cases Valid 765 98.6 Excluded 11 1.4 Total 776 100.0 a. Listwise deletion based on all variables in the procedure. The above table maintains that the questions related to nationality, location during last programme and employment have been replied by an overwhelming majority (98.6%) of the respondents, and just the ignorable percentage could not submit any answer to them. In addition, the reliability test demonstrates the score to be .461 at alpha as relationship percentage among the three: Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .461 3 SECTION IV Results of three statistical analyses: The comparison of the respondents in the light of the research findings have been made through one-way ANOVA table, where age sex and nationality have been included as the statistical test, which have been presented as following: ANOVA Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Age Between Groups 9080.197 5 1816.039 32.445 .000 Within Groups 41979.274 750 55.972 Total 51059.471 755 Sex Between Groups 1.881 5 .376 1.903 .092 Within Groups 149.267 755 .198 Total 151.148 760 Nationality Between Groups 160.141 5 32.028 10.942 .000 Within Groups 2207.012 754 2.927 Total 2367.153 759 The above ANOVA table reveals that there exists significant difference in respect of the categories i.e. between groups and within groups with regards to all the factors selected for examination including age, sex and nationality. Almost all the values related to sum of square, df, mean square, f ratio and sigma (Sig.) witness diversification in all manners. Somehow, the some level of similarity could be viewed in Sig values in all the cases mentioned in the table above. Consequently, the ANOVA table presents the detailed scenario of the research findings in a skilful and precise way. Furthermore, second statistical test applied for making analysis of the findings of present study is chi-square. In this test, time since previous study has been concentrated upon Time since previous study Observed N Expected N Residual Less than 2 years 394 126.7 267.3 2-5 years 193 126.7 66.3 5-10 years 95 126.7 -31.7 10-15 years 37 126.7 -89.7 15-20 years 24 126.7 -102.7 More than 20 years 17 126.7 -109.7 Total 760 Based upon the barrier Time since previous study, it becomes evident that the during from 10 years to more than 20 years almost similar observed N, while the categories of duration from 2 years up to 10 years witness imperative differences. In addition, while discussing the Residual, it is clear that there exist large differences among the time since previous study. It manifestly mentions that this category could not be declared to be a noteworthy barrier on the way to learning process of the adult respondents. The study has also been selected on the basis of another parametric test i.e. Friedman’s k related test for conducting the research analysis. Here, years in the UK, residential circumstances and employment issues have been selected for making the investigation, results of which have been mentioned as below: Ranks Mean Rank Years in UK 2.43 Residential circumstances 1.97 Employment 1.60 Here, the above table demonstrates 2.43, 1.97 and 1.60 as the Mean Ranks for years in the UK, residential circumstances and employment respectively. Despite the very fact there exists some slight differences in the Mean Ranks; somehow, these slight differences cannot hide the magnitude of similarity all the three contain in their scope. It emphatically demonstrates the existence of association among the three. Nevertheless, residential circumstances and employment exhibit closer relationship and proximity between them in comparison with the stay of the respondents in the UK. Further association could be witnessed as following: Test Statistics N 746 Chi-Square 282.685 df 2 Asymp. Sig. .000 a. Friedman Test The above table shows further association with N= 746, and Chi-Square 282.7. To conclude, it becomes evident that the study has been conducted by categorising the residents on the basis of their age, sex and nationality on the one side, and barriers on the way to their learning on the other. Although multiple questions had been asked in order to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the important reasons behind the adult learners’ difficulties in seeking education; somehow, the thorough examination of the findings and by applying different tests and statistical analysis formulae, residential circumstances, employment issues and lacking confidence are the most significant issues in this respect. References Bachrach, Arthur J. (1965) Psychological Research: An introduction. Third Edition, London: Random House (Digitised 2008). Bailey, Kenneth D. (1994). Methods of Social Research. New York: Simon and Schuster Doby, John T. (1981). Introduction to Social Research. New York: Irvington Publishers. Fichman, Mark. (1999). Variance Explained: Why size does not (always) matter. Graduate School of Industrial Administration Carnegie-Mellon University. 1-71 Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1115&context=tepper Koziol, Natalie., & Arthur, Ann. (2011). An Introduction to Secondary Data Analysis. Research Methodology Series, CYFS. Pp. 2-50 Retriever from http://r2ed.unl.edu/presentations/2011/RMS/120911_Koziol/120911_Koziol.pdf Mollet, Julius A. (2008) Ethical Issues in Social Science Research in Developing Countries: Useful or Symbolic. Retrieved from http://www.aust-neth.net/transmission_proceedings/papers/Mollet.pdf Petrides, K. V., Furnham, A., & Martin, G. N. (2004). Estimates of emotional and psychometric intelligence: Evidence for gender-based stereotypes. Journal of Social Psychology, 144, 149-162. Smith, Lindsay. (2002). A Tutorial on Principal Component Analysis. Pp. 1-27 Retrieved from http://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/cosc453/student_tutorials/principal_components.pdf Zaidi, Mujtaba Haider. (2013). Perpetual Separation between Dogmatism and State. The Frontier Post Daily English Newspaper December 01, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.thefrontierpost.com/article/58553/Perpetual-separation-between-Dogmatism-and-State/#.UprCW04m8k4 The British Psychological Society. (2009). Code of Ethics and Conduct: Guidance published by the Ethics Committee of the British Psychological Society pp. 1-31 Retrieved from http://www.bps.org.uk/system/files/documents/code_of_ethics_and_conduct.pdf University of California. (2014). Research Involving the Secondary Use of Existing Data Committee for Protection of Human Subjects pp. 1-4 Retrieved from http://cphs.berkeley.edu/secondarydata.pdf Read More